The long-form journalism website Narratively, a "platform devoted to untold human stories," is telling New Orleans tales all this week. Narratively explores one theme per week and publishes one story a day, and this week is billed as "Beyond Bourbon Street."

Monday's story was a repackaging of Alison Fensterstock's NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune feature about the Mardi Gras Indian Queens. In honor of Fat Tuesday, today's piece is a profile of custom Mardi Gras ladder maker George Brower.

"This New Orleans transplant has built around 100 ladders since 1986, many of them deluxe models that can seat up to four children," writes M.D. Dupuy. "On parade day, he will line up about twenty ladders, occupying a stretch of oak-lined sidewalk that his wife’s family has claimed for fifty-eight years. Gentle, with deep-set eyes and a bare head, Brower is nearly sixty, and takes a quiet pride in making sure his friends’ kids have a good view.

“'Mardi Gras is not just to be with your family, that sort of happens naturally,' says Brower. 'It’s to include all of the friends you’d like to be with for other holidays that you can’t.'”

Read the full piece here, and check back to NOLA.com the rest of the week as we share more "Beyond Bourbon Street" stories in partnership with Narratively.